Brunt Ice Shelf
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The Brunt Ice Shelf is an ice-shelf on the Weddell Sea bordering the Antarctic coast of Coats Land, between the Dawson-Lambton Glacier and the Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue, in the British Antarctic Territory.
The ice shelf was named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee after David Brunt, the British meteorologist, and Physical Secretary of the Royal Society, 1948–57, who was responsible for the initiation of the Royal Society Expedition to this ice shelf in 1955.
Contents
Halley
- Main article: Halley
The Royal Society Expedition of 1955–59 had its base on the ice here: that base was later taken over by the British Antarctic Survey as the Halley Research Station.
Halley is still operational, though the base and its successors have had to be replaced as the weather buries them in snow and the constant movement of the ice shelf has pushed the position of each base slowly northwards and eventually off into the sea. The current base is now 'Halley VI', a modern, modular base with legs that are jacked up to raise it above the snow and ready to be towed south again by tractors when the ice moves it north.
Brunt Icefalls
The Brunt Icefalls (at 75°55’0"S, 25°0’0"E) extend along Caird Coast for about fifty miles, where the steep ice-covered coast descends to Brunt Ice Shelf. The icefalls were discovered on 5 November 1967, in the course of a United States Navy Squadron VXE-6 flight over the coast in LC-130 aircraft, and was plotted by the United States Geological Survey from air photos obtained at that time. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in association with the Brunt Ice Shelf.
See also
References
- 75°40’0"S, 25°0’0"W
- Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Brunt Ice Shelf
